A reader walks into a bookstore. Spies an interesting book. What does she do? Picks it up. Flips to the first chapter before anything else. At least, that’s what I do.
One way or another, I want to see/read that first chapter. Because that’s where you grab me or where you push me out the door. The first chapter is where you use me or lose me.
1. Use a kickass opening line.
A good opening line is assertive. A good opening line is a promise, or a question, or an unproven idea. It says something interesting.
If you get people to read the first line, they’ll read to the second. If they can read to the first chapter, they’ll at least finish the second. If they read to page 10, they’ll go to 20, if they read to 40, they’ll stay to page 80, and so on and so forth.
2. Introduce the main character. You want to open with a scene involving the protagonist. Yes, thats how it happens in movies but it works great in drama but not in a novel. Whoever we meet first in a book is the character we’ll bond with. If that person gets killed on page five, we feel cheated.
3. Dialogue is everything
Make the character talk, give me dialogue. Dialogue is sugar. Dialogue is sweet. And dialogue is the fastest way to me getting to know the character. Look at it this way: when you meet a new person do you want to sit, watching them or do you want to go up and have a conversation?
4. Give us some action
Monkeys eat bananas. And conflict is what feeds the reader. Begin the book with conflict. Big, small, physical, emotional, whatever. Conflict disrupts the status quo. Conflict is drama. Conflict, above all else, is interesting.
5. Establish the when and where
In the first chapter it’s essential to establish the where and the when of the story, just so the reader knows what is hapening. That doesn't mean you have to build paragraph wall after paragraph wall giving endless details to support the when and the where.
6. Mood lighting
First impressions matter. The first chapter is where the reader gets his first and perhaps strongest taste of mood. Make a concerted effort to ask, “What is the mood I want the reader to feel throughout this book? What first taste hits their emotional palate?”
7. Theme as thesis
An academic paper needs a thesis, a story is very much like that. Every story is an argument. And the theme is the crystallization of that argument. The theme of your story is critical. And just as the thesis of a paper goes right up front, so too must your theme be present in the first chapter.
8. The first chapter is the hardest to write
Writing the first chapter can really be difficult. That’s okay. That’s normal. Do it and get through it.
9. Check out other books
Since you’re a writer, you probably have bookshelves choked with novels. So, grab ten off the shelf. Read their opening chapters. Find out what works. Find out what sucks. What’s missing? What’s present?
10. Don't be BORING!
Above all else, don’t be boring. That’s the cardinal sin of storytelling. If you ignore most of the things on this list: fine. Don’t ignore this one. Be interesting. Engage the reader’s curiosity. The greatest crime a writer can commit is by telling a boring story with boring characters and boring circumstances.
Open big. Open strong. Open in a way that commands the reader’s interest. Fuck boring.